American History 1988
Chapter 262 - 253 Scammer_2

Chapter 262: Chapter 253 Scammer_2

But now, Byte Company had made such a commitment, and Gates smelled an unusual scent in it.

Either Byte Company was confident in their after-sales system or they were prepared to capture the market at all costs.

But whichever it was, it was not good news for Microsoft.

Microsoft Money hadn’t even put up a single poster, and its market awareness was almost zero!

From publicity to promotion, and then to distribution across the country, how long would that take?

Gates took a deep breath and then turned his gaze to Teresa.

"Go notify Steve to come here."

"I’ll go right now," said Teresa, who longed to quickly leave the office that had just been ravaged by the storm.

"The Microsoft Money project will be handed over to Danny, you can go home now."

Teresa, who was just about to turn towards the door, shook visibly and turned around, incredulous, "Mr. Gates?!"

Bill Gates pointed at her and said word by word, "You’re fired! Now! Get out of my office!"

"Oh, My God!" Teresa covered her mouth, tears twinkling in her eyes.

"Annie! Go notify Steve to come here! Immediately, right now!"

Gates yelled impatiently at his secretary, not glancing at Teresa throughout the process.

Microsoft didn’t need the weak; they should be aware of that.

Right outside, on the wall of the office building, that phrase had always been posted there, constantly reminding the people inside this velvet factory.

"Dedicate yourself to the ultimate goal of work: self-flagellation and skepticism of the world outside of Microsoft!"

Look, dedication and self-flagellation are the premises, and skepticism should only apply to the world beyond Microsoft.

...

"Is this Microsoft’s Microsoft Money?"

"Yes, does it look familiar?"

"If you cover up Microsoft’s logo, I might even think this is a historical version of Quicken."

Hehehe~

Dean and Cook, huddled in front of the computer, burst into laughter together.

They were researching Microsoft’s financial software, which had been released a tad later than originally planned.

But regardless, both Byte Company and Intuit took it seriously enough.

There you go, Microsoft Money had just been released, and they started trying it out immediately.

But the results of their experience... just look at the smiles on their faces.

The functional design of the two softwares was similar enough, but the key point was that Microsoft Money was a piece of shit!

It imitated Quicken, but to differentiate itself, Microsoft Money added a lot of useless features.

As a result, the software was all show and no substance, with a terrible user experience, full of errors and glitches.

Moreover, using Microsoft Money was extremely inconvenient, it even lacked backup features.

In the eyes of Dean and others, it was a rushed, half-baked product.

They were very doubtful whether Microsoft had optimized the software before launch.

If Microsoft Money was only at this level, perhaps they didn’t need to be so tense about Microsoft.

"Alright Cook, at least for now, it seems our Quicken has no competitors."

This was Dean’s first time competing with Microsoft, making him even more nervous than Cook.

In order to get Quicken to capture as much market as possible before Microsoft, Dean even let Byte Company’s marketing department take over its promotion.

This sort of unnatural aid had an immediate effect.

In just the past week, Quicken’s sales matched what Intuit had sold in the previous two months.

"Phew," Cook sighed in relief, "Microsoft’s influence seems to have been overly exaggerated."

"No, this is only temporary." Although Dean watched with some amusement, it didn’t mean he really underestimated Microsoft.

"So there will be changes in the future?" Cook had to perk up again.

"Microsoft’s true strength lies in version iteration, If you take a close look at their products, you’ll notice."

Microsoft has almost never succeeded with the first version of software, it usually takes several updates before gradually gaining market approval."

The most typical example is Windows, where version 1.0 received a flood of bad reviews in the market, while now version 3.0 has completely turned things around.

"What should we do next?" Thinking of Microsoft’s dominance in the desktop system, Cook began to feel anxious again.

As a programmer with a technical background, Cook was acutely aware of the immense power Microsoft could unleash with their operating system backing.

"Don’t be too nervous, what Intuit needs to do now is to quickly launch the next version of Quicken."

Moreover, the tax software for corporate users also needs to be perfected as soon as possible, what’s it called?"

"TurboTax," Cook regained his confidence, another labor of love from Intuit.

"Exactly!" Dean snapped his fingers, "The real spenders have always been the accountants in the office buildings."

In an era when personal computers weren’t fully widespread, it was clear that business with corporate users was better.

In terms of Microsoft Money, Dean knew Gates wouldn’t give up easily.

But as long as Intuit keeps up their update pace, plus the channel support from Byte Company,

Quicken will always be ahead of Microsoft, not to mention its many years of accumulated reputation.

As long as they maintain the current momentum, Intuit might even widen their lead.

"By the way, Dean, we are planning to implement an annual subscription model for TurboTax, just like Byte Company does."

"Oh, bold idea." Dean looked at him with admiration.

Not many software companies dare to do this nowadays, fearing that customers may turn to their competitors.

"We’ve designed online features for TurboTax, but Intuit doesn’t have its own server center, so..."

Dean looked at Cook with a semi-smile, causing the latter to blush unusually.

"Okay, Byte Company can provide server support, but it won’t be free."

"Of course, Intuit will pay the related costs, just like with this promotion."

Cook agreed without hesitation, to hesitate for even a second would be beneath his status as a CEO.

Ever since partnering with Byte Company, everyone at Intuit was overjoyed.

They became addicted to the treatment of having resources generously supplied to them—promotion, after-sales, the whole package.

Then, the sales of Quicken began to skyrocket. It was exhilarating!

Now before making important decisions, Cook even made it a habit to consult with Dean.

"I’ll arrange for the Byte Company team to coordinate with you. Next year Intuit must achieve at least a hundred million US Dollars in revenue, and then prepare to go public!"

Supporting Intuit’s software promotion was never free for Byte Company.

At the very least, Intuit needed to pay a subsidy for the after-sales personnel.

Otherwise, why would everyone be motivated to provide various after-sales services for Quicken software?

The servers were the same situation. Byte Company’s data centers actually had excess capacity.

It was a good opportunity to make full use of them, and at the same time, subsidize their own hardware expenses.

After discussing future strategies with Cook for a while, Dean saw him off and started to read the newspaper in his hands.

The "High-Performance Computing Act" had recently come into effect, and he expected the media was bustling with the news.

But on the front page headline, he saw a familiar face.

Clinton? What mischief had he gotten into this time?

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